Pictured Above: Looking south towards Bayboro Harbor, this area, formerly classrooms, will serve as a break area for faculty.
Patrick Tobin | The Crow’s Nest
By Patrick Tobin
After facing delays because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the second-floor renovations of Davis Hall will be completed in time for the spring 2021 semester.
“Construction will be finished by the middle of December,” said Ed Lewis, the assistant director for planning and construction, who is overseeing the project for the university.
Faculty and staff will be able to move into offices starting in mid-December and classrooms will be available should in-person classes be held in spring.
The $5 million project was initially set to be completed by July 2020. However, in an email to staff on April 10, Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock announced the completion date would be pushed back because of “issues related to the Florida Stay at Home mandate.” Tadlock said construction was forced to “temporarily pause.”
Lewis said it was less of a pause and more of a delay, caused by the USF administration’s attention shifting towards planning for COVID-19.
“It was a bit of pandemonium, I think, for everybody at the time,” said Lewis. “So, we didn’t get, necessarily, the availability of the administration side that we would’ve normally have had… And I agree with that. The health of everybody becomes more important than the project.”
In spite of complications, Lewis said the university and the Beck Group – the architecture and construction contractor for the project – managed to continue on schedule throughout the pandemic.
Both groups have procedures in place to stop the spread of COVID-19. Sanitizing stations are placed throughout the site and workers are required to wear masks and submit daily symptom questionnaires, much like those that students and faculty have to submit to get on campus. The Beck Group has an on-site employee in charge of checking in workers, submitting questionnaires and ensuring that all COVID-19 procedures are being followed.
According to Lewis, the absence of students, staff and faculty on campus for most of the spring and summer semesters has actually helped some aspects of the project.
“Particularly when we started on the demolition, which is noisy and heavy… instead of having a whole group of staff and faculty on the first floor, there was nobody there. So, it allowed us to take away some of those restrictions, so we sped up if you like,” said Lewis.
Though the second floor of Davis Hall is still an active construction site, evidence of a more modern College of Arts and Sciences is already apparent.
“Construction evolves – it goes in cycles,” said Lewis. “Everybody gets excited at the beginning and then nothing happens for a little while, it seems to be, because you’re doing all the stuff above ceilings and stuff like that – all just stuff that people don’t necessarily see. And then you get towards the end and you start putting all the more aesthetic parts on it, then it starts to evolve again.”
